About two-thirds into the pilgrimage I describe in my book The Making of Us, DJ and I were in pain. I was lying on my motel bed one afternoon, hips aching, feet raw like I was walking on bone, just feeling exhausted. And it brought to mind some times in my life that I’ve come close to burnout:

As a student, trying to do too many things at once

As a youth pastor, lasting only 18 months in the job

In my early years as a broadcaster

And what was common to each was a busyness driven by comparison.

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What Comparison Does

Busyness is a bully at the best of times, stomping around, wanting the playground to itself, chasing peace away first, then patience, then kindness, joy, and self-control. But this bully becomes a tyrant when it teams up with comparison. The two work together. Comparison points out someone afar, showing us all they’re doing and the success they’re achieving, then whispers to us:

You’re not good enough!

Pretty enough!

Successful enough!

Spiritual enough!

That’s when busyness comes in, jumping on our backs and yelling:

Do more!

Try harder!

Then you might be like them!

The result for me was too many times feeling exhausted… and feeling like a failure.

Enough

The philosopher David Whyte says busyness is a sure sign that we are living someone else’s life and doing some else’s work. There came a time as I was writing The Making of Us when I decided, enough: